Mid City
by Kirbilius Clausius
Summary: Walk through the right educational institution in Mid City, and you can find anything.
1. That Blue Bastard

A college kid drives a Sloth at break neck speeds. 

_I finger the square cap in the seat next to me. It's nearly time to say goodbye to all the sweat and sleepless nights and frustrations a Ph. D represents. Tomorrow's graduation, and I'll be done. But there's something more important than pressing a suit clean._

_I should be at the party Chen is throwing. I'm thinking about the PacMan and Pong tourney's projected in the dorm common's walls. About the caffiene driven Star Wars Star Trek debates that the electrical engineers are sure to hold. And about the girl who should be theree to share it with me._

_And that's why my cap shares its seat with Ronny Reagan's wet dream, a microwave emitter that can over heat an ICBM. Because she didn't show up to the party. Because he took her. And I'm not waiting for the cops to tell me what happenned to victim number four._

The college kid skids to a stop at the entrance to the docks. Someone is already waiting for him.

"You're already in enough trouble.", Ramesh tells him. "Borrowing top secret technology, that's to be expected. But showing it off in public to save a med student that hasn't even begun residency? They'll dissappear you, let alone your doctorate."

The college kids scoffs. "So what do you want me to do, Ramesh? Just sit back and let that drop out has his deranged thrills with victim number 4? Victim number 4! You've seen them after he's through with them. How could you even want to stop me?"

The college kid takes a few steps forward, with his 'friend' facing his back. The friend continues. "Think about your future. You have to be in good with the government to be an astronaut. Carrying that emitter in public is one sure fire way to make them mad. You have to show up alive tomorrow at the ceremony to get your degree. Taking Drew on by yourself is a good way to end that. I'm your lab partner. They can get me too."

The college kid nods. "Gee, maybe your right Ramesh."

Just as the friend is about to agree, the college kid slugs him with the back end of the emitter.

As the friend falls, the college kid reminds him. "Anything's possible for a Possible."

_Ah, who am I kidding. Sure, mom trained with Shoa-lin monks and Navy Seals. But I'm just a nerd, more brains than brawn. More brains than anything, really. Sneaking around this wharf is like asking for summer camp at Lake Wannaweep._

The college kid nearly drops the emitter as he falls to the ground.

_Then it hits me. Why I'm doing this is questionable. Sure, I could be doing this for all the right reasons. Because I can help. Because she doesn't deserve this. Because I care. On the flip side, I could be doing this for all the wrong reasons too. Like on the count of she's hot. On the count of I just don't like that drop out._

_But then the voices of his two henchmen carry over to me. Doesn't matter why. Just matters that._

"I do not think that Doctor Drakken would mind so terribly if we were to peruse this hover car, should our perusal thereof be only momentary.", the first henchman in tinted goggles stated.

"Oh, no?", the second countered. "Of what evidence do you so provide that points to our employer's patient understanding of transgressions? Perhaps it is his constant utterances of demands of vengance upon forces, both realized and imaginary, so constantly uttered? Or is it his nubile brain's complete stability on which you base this so-called assumption of lack of prudence?"

_Gotta play this quiet. Can't give him warning I'm coming._

The college kid hits one henchman with the back of the emitter, then the other.

_I'm stumbling on. I've reached the door and there aren't any screams. Either I'm just in time, or I'm way too late._

The door burst in. Two feminine robots fall to the ground in a shower of sparks.

"James!", the girl with red hair on Drew's shoulder cries out as he races out another exit.

The college kid catches up with Drew, the girl and a remaining Bebe.

"It's over Lipsky.", the college kid calls out.

Drew turns around. "What's over, Possible? My Bebe's are improving every time I get another one. And Anne's a fine one, don't you think? Besides, your little over-colleged nerdly body can't even lift that cannon you're carrying."

"Sure I can." The college kid fires the emitter and a scar appears on Drew's cheek.

_I nullify the threat._

Drew collapses as a pants leg burns a gash open.

_Both of them._

The Bebe slides to a stop in a shower of sparks in response to the microwave emitter's beam.

Only then does the college kid feel a force that slaps him to the ground.

"That's enough, James." Ramesh tells him. "Stay down, and maybe this is salvegable."

"Feelin' fine, Ramesh.", the college kid says.

Anne is on her hands and knees. She casts her eyes about, trying to figure out which direction to crawl.

"You shouldn't have this guy as a boyfriend, Anne.", Ramesh tells her. "He's a crazy man."

_I have to take his mind off the girl._

"I'm in my right mind for once.", the college kid calls out.

"I still have this with me.", he pats the device.

_Then the sirens sound. Ramesh leaves me, the girl, and the collapsed Drew in favor of taking off with the emitter. I'm lying against one of the wooden pillars of the dock._

_And she nuzzles against me. The smell and feel of her hair entrances me. I suppose that's the way the world works. A nerd gets beat up. A hot chick is helped._

_Fair trade._


	2. That Blue Bastard 2

IV's border his view of the door that leads to his hospital bed.

Nurse-

"Sure, I'll clean your bedpan and wipe your bottom. That's my job.

"But I heard you're up for treason. So don't expect any small talk from me."

Chen and Ramesh-

"Come on, Possible. We got the emitter back in the lab before they could prove it was gone. They got nothing on you. Why are you so quiet?"

Nana Possible-

"Tell me it isn't true. Tell me that what they're saying about you stealing from the government isn't true.

"James! Say something. If you don't want me to leave Middleton forever and head off to Florida, say something now."

Dr. Director-

"Do you know who I am, Possible? Of course you know who I am, it's grant giving season and all. You've seen plenty of me in the universities labs. You know exactly who I am.

"And what I can do. And I'm doing you, Possible. I'm doing you right and good. Paying for all this hospital care out of our budget. Even getting some more meat on those scrawny nerd bones of yours.

"You stole top secret technology. And instead of offering up Dr. Drakken in exchange for your crime, you just exposed it to the public. There's treaties against missile defense, and you nearly got the whole country in a heap of trouble.

"You see, power doesn't come from militaries or high-tech. It comes from knowledge."

She points her watch at him and two blue arcs begin to course around prongs that weren't there a second ago.

"I could light you up right now. I wouldn't even be arrested. You know why? Because no one would know. Anyone that mattered anyway. They'd all cover for me, and this wouldn't have even taken place. Otherwise, all the other things hidden would spill out into the open. And the whole system would come tumbling down."

"So listen up, Possible. You're never going to see space up close. You're gonna use all that engineering know-how to build ships for us to send more...discrete people up in your place. You're not so much as going to be allowed on a plane built with a government subsidy.

"And if you tell anyone, they're classified. You tell your mother, that girl, even Ramesh and Chen before their shuttle missions and they're classified. You think long and hard about that."

Anne-

"Nobody'll listen to me. I tried telling them that you saved me from that Drew creep. They talked my parents out of letting me go to Washington. They won't even give me an MRI to see that my brain hasn't been drained to the Bebe hive mind.

"But it hasn't. I haven't been brain drained and I'm still in college. Thanks to you, James.", she tells him.

The college kid tries to shake his head. "You can't tell anyone, Anne. Don't think about going to the press, even the science journals. Just forget about the whole thing."

Anne disagrees. "You might be able to keep me quiet. But you can't keep me from marrying you. I'll be at your side, forever. I love you James Timothy Possible."

The college kid replies before slipping back into unconsciousness. "I love you too, Anne."


	3. That Blue Bastard 3

A hulking frame of a man leans over the college kid's desk. The college kid is now wearing a lab coat, showing he's a scientist. The hulking frame is in military guard.

"Well, well, well.", Lt. Barkin exhales. "Looky what we have here. Dr. James Timothy Possible. Mr. Stay in School. Mr. Study Hard. Mr. Eyes on the Prize."Looks like you should have enlisted when I did, Possible.", he continues. "Then maybe you'd be going up instead of little ole me. Want me to bring you back some souveniers from beyond the red line?"

"Hey, leave the guy alone.", the new intern whines. "He don't look too good."

Barkin flashes her a toothy smile. "Oh, don't worry about Possible here. He's hale and hearty.

"That reminds me to remind you, Possible. You see Viv over there. She just started here. Has a thing for astronauts. Maybe if you were one, you'd get a piece of her.

"Oooh, look at that. She flinched. She heard what you did. What you think of our country's national security.

_This is nothing but a price I promised myself I'd pay, and I'm paying it. You don't save your wife and then throw her to the dogs. Not in my book you don't._

_I was hired right in in Middleton Space Center, a contractor for NASA and don't tell anyone, the U.S. Air Force. Every day bums like Barkin that sat in the back of the class hoping to never be called out on their incapacity to learn fly up in the very designs I create._

_Anne does exactly what she promised. We were married the day I got the job offer. Wants to have a son and a daughter, name them after ourselves. Like she can declare to the whole world that we're together for life if she can't proclaim my innocence._

_Two whole decades pass..._


	4. That Blue Bastard 4

_Scientists don't get offices. We get labs. Then we get departments, with grants and projects. We still don't get to go up in space._

_Anne tries the best she can though. Our daughter and our twins (yeah, that didn't go over so well) are named after us. After all the years, pepporoni pizza nights and thin waist despite years of experience-yeah, she came through._

_I'm staring at my computer screen, waiting for Novell's Evolution to ding like a kid on Christmas. It's stupid to worry that an e-mail is late. She's been a saint to keep it up for as long as she did._

_I come back a few minutes later from what will be a scram jet engine for Fredrick to ride when he grows up and sure enough a message is waiting for me. I open it, and I go sick to my stomach._

_There's a .gif of some kind of blue freak. He looks undead. He's got a greasy mullet pulled back into a pony tail out of the eighties, a toothy sneer and a jagged scar crying from his eye. But it's the message that stops my heart._

Doctor Possible,

I am formally forewarning you that I, the world's greatest genius-Dr. Drakken, am going to kidnapp the young miss Possible.

If you're so smart, you can try to stop me.

Sincerely,

Dr. Drakken

p.s. Neener neener

_I've got to get out of here. I don't know who he is, or how he found out where I am but I've got to stop them._

_There's only one thing my neck deep with the fed boss wants. One final submission they want. Alright, Director. You beat me._

_I tell my boss everything he wants to hear. That I'm doing my job just for my own benefit, not for my country. That I'm a dirty traitor and I'm only thinking about myself. That I don't have a sense of duty enough to stay a full work day and not take off work early._

The scientist comes out of the space center and Ramesh is waiting for him.

"Let me give you a ride back into town.", Ramesh says. "It's a lot of miles and I know your wife dropped you off this morning."

The scientist nearly chuckles. "As long as you stay in front of me."

Ramesh does chuckle. "Talk about water under the bridge. Working for the government has made you paranoid."

A moment later, they're headed back into town.

"How's Bob?", the scientist asks.

"You mean Professor Chen, now.", Ramesh replies. "Guy never got away from Upperton U."

The scientist smiles. "That's good. Bob always wanted to stay in pure research. Always said he'd make a good teacher."

_Too long a time later I'm at my house. I have to turn the key in the lock, so at least it wasn't broken into. No one's home. No signs of a struggle either. The only clue to my Kimmie-Cub's whereabouts is the entirely too immodest uniform of the cheer squad she made a few weeks ago._

_I'm at the school in no time flat. So is every other loser that wasn't able to leave this small town and came to root for a high school team. I stop hispanic child._

"Excuse me, miss.", the scientist starts. "I'm looking for someone. Kimberly Possible."

Zeta turns past the stands. "Eyes to the field, pilgrim. Don't worry, she's just getting warmed up."

_I come closer to the foot ball field and my eyes grow large. Here, I keep thinking of the little girl in pig tails. A little too defensive for her own good, not many friends besides the Stoppable boy. Skinny little Kimmie-Cub grew up. Filled out._

_Then I spot him. Just a flash of blue in the crowd. _

_And it dawns on me. If he was able to kidnapp my daughter, he would have and the e-mail would have been a ransom note! He was bluffing. And like a grade-A sucker I led him right here._

_I keep walking. Just a towny, rooting on the Mad Dogs. I can lead him back outside. Take away any weapons he has._

_No, Kimmie-Cub. Don't look at me. Don't recognize me._

Kim Possible sees the scientist in the stands for the first time since she joined the cheer squad. She cart wheels off the top of the pyramid, flips over the guard rails and nearly knocks him over with a hug.

The scientist speaks quickly. "I made a mistake. I've put you in terrible danger. We have to go right now."

"Sure, dad.", the red head replies. "Just let me put some clothes on.

"And here I thought you didn't care for cheer leading."

The scientist shakes his head. "I'm proud of everything you do. It kept me going all these years. Hurry up, willya?"

A minute later, they get in the family car.

"I'm just gonna tuck my baton under the seat, okay?", she tells him. "The fans and Bonnie seem to like it, but it weighs like a mule."

The scientist notes the metal rod. _Yeah. That'll due._

Kim continues on through her braces. "I saw the look on your face when I first brought home my uniform dad. But I just want to make you proud. You always told me that I was the girl that could do anything. Anything's possible for a Possible, right?"

"Sure.", the scientist agrees.

But the rest of his response is cut off by an energy beam that cuts through the back window and windshield of the car.


	5. That Blue Bastard 5

"Keeping the car on the road!", the scientist called out.

"I know what I'm doing.", the girl called back.

_She's leaning out the window, doesn't even need to open the door to fit. Everything is whipping in the wind, her skirt, her red hair. _

_The blue bastard has some sort of beam weapon, and some skill-he's a decent shot. But he's too eager, throwing away energy blasts like candy. He doesn't know how to take his time. Hold his breath. Anything's possible for a Possible._

The girl throws the baton. It bounces in the window their pursuer is shooting out of. The rod hits him in the neck, and his non-hovering car slides off the road into a ditch.

The girl looks at her driver in puzzlement.

The scientist replies to her unasked question. "Gotta go back. Confirm he's gone."

The girl nods. "Right. Go back. Confirm he's gone."

_We drive back to the wreck, but he's no where to be found. Not a piece of him or that mad scientist getup to be found._

"If he was a supervillain, he's gotta have henchmen.", the scientist says aloud. "We gotta keep moving."

_She's still trying to wrap her head around the situation she's in. And me? I'm a rocket scientist. I'm about as good at comforting a teen age girl as Ramesh was in high school._

"Thank you so much, daddy.", Kim says. "You know how much I love you, right dad?"

"Sure, Kimmie-cub.", the scientist says unsteadily.

"I wanted to show you I was growing up all achieving and determined. Guess I screwed that up."

"No way, Kimmie-cub. You've done great. Look, I'm gonna try to calm down. Wash up some."

_I take a cold shower. It helps._

A noise is made in the bathroom.

"Kimmie-cub?", the scientist calls out.

The shower curtain is pushed aside and two solid blows land on the scientist's jaw.

The blue bastard is towering over him. "Don't recognize my face, do you, Possible? But I bet you can recognize my voice. You can recognize my voice, can't you, Possible?"

The scientist looks up around the boot that's standing on his face. "Sure. I can recognize your voice, Drew."

The scientist is knocked uncounscious by a stomp of the boot that's on his face.

Some time later, the scientist is on his tip toes on the coffee table with his hands bound and his neck in a noose.

The little girl goes limp in the arms of that blue bastard when he injects her with something as blue as he is.

"Turns out that point blank radiation blasts are bad for you.", Drakken tells him. "Takes experts all over the world to get you back to the picture of health. But as you can see, there were some side effects.

"But that's okay. With all you who graduated working nine-to-fives, I've been having the time of my life."

He pulls out a cell phone. "I have a body for you to collect. And set me up for a party. My tools better be ready when I get there. I already got the girl, you dumb buffoon! My tools better be clean and calibrated. It better be perfect. Or I'm calling my Bebes!

"You know, Possible...This is really your fault that I'm choosing her as the next brain to add to my Bebes. She's a little lippy for my tastes...but I'll make do. The best part though...The best part is that you'll die knowing that it's all your fault."

The scientist calls out with his last free breaths. "Challenge him Kimmie-cub! Talk back, don't let him bully you."

He goes silent when the blue bastard kicks the table away from his feet and leaves with his daughter.

_I'm just a foolish old man. I've just been suckered into betraying the only thing that's made all this time bearable. Now Kimmie-cub's face is going to look like all the other victims. _

_This is it._

**THE END**


	6. The Big Fat Beating

Knocks sound on the door.

"I don't care how long you knock on that door.", Zeta calls out. "No way am I letting you in here, Flagg."

The hulk on the other side of the door keeps knocking. "I understand you're mad, Zeta. But I forgive you for that, without even you asking me to. See how generous I am?"

Zeta calls out from the other side. "Oh yeah, real kind hearted. Like all the bruises you gave me so I gotta show up for work black instead of Latina? You know, it's one thing to be knocked off at a guy who's generally not so bad. But it's another thing to find out you been sweet talked by a total jerk loser!"

"Baby...", Brick starts up again. "Why you gotta go cutting me down all the time? Just open up. We'll have a real good time."

Ron walks up. "Open the door, Zeta. I'll take care of this. Just needs a little Ronnitude."

Zeta nearly panics. "No, Ron. You don't know how bad this can get if he finds you here."

"Of course I do.", Ron says. "He's got four other guys with him in the hall and they're all got a mean drunk on just like he is."

Brick calls out his suspicions. "Who are you talking to in there? You got someone else in there?"

Zeta replies. "It's a regular Zombie Masher 3 tournament in here."

Brick pounds on the door again. "There you go, trying to cut me down again. I'm no bully...some of my best friends are nerds. You know I been too kind to point out that I could break this door down anytime I wanted."

"Alright, alright.", Zeta admits.

The girl opens the door. Brick walks in, followed by thug after thug. Ron's no where to be found.


	7. The Big Fat Beating 2

"Troops, make yourself at home.", Flagg comands. The other thugs start going through Zeta's parent's refrigerator.

"Someone else was here.", Brick figures. "A man. Your video game controller is still warm. Who is he?"

Zeta sneers. "He's Superman. He flew out the window as soon as he heard you cause you scared him so bad."

"There you go. Choppin' me down again."

"But I forgive you, doll. It'll be great. You call up some of the other girls that work the movie theatre. Then all you, me, the girls and the troops'll hit every Bueno Nacho and Cow 'n' Chow in town."

Zeta stands defiant. "I ain't calling nobody. Not for no fathead that needs to hit around a woman to feel like a man."

Brick steps toward her ominously. "That's an outright lie. I never hit a woman in my life."

Brick pushes Zeta to the ground smashing a glass table, then steps over her. "I gotta take a leak."

The thugs stop slapping their hands together in congradulations of Brick's domination. One of them speaks.

"You know, he is generous. But that temper of his...oooh. But I don't have no temper, so you can feel all kinds of cozy with me."

Zeta picks a shard. "Touch me and I'll cut you."

The thug eases back at the threat, trying to laugh it off.

Flagg finishes in the bathroom and goes to wash his hands. When he looks in the mirror, he sees two faces. One is his own, held back. The other is Ron who has an arm around his throat and his hair pulled back.

"Um...hi.", Ron begins. "I'm Zeta's new boyfriend. You probably 've seen me around, you know, at school or something. Look, if you ever see Zeta or even so much as think her name, I'll unleash all types of monkey kung fu on you."

Brick stares at the other set of eyes in the mirror. "Look buddy, you're making a big mistake."

"So did you.", Ron reminds him. "Your mouth is gaping open with a naked mole rat in the room."

Then Brick spots the pink creature. Rufus scrubs the soles of his feet on Bricks tongue. Brick panics and starts slapping his head to get the rodent away. When he doesn't feel it anymore, he searches the bathroom frantically. Ron has disappeared again.

Brick storms back into the kitchen. "Troops, move out. No questions. No questions, I said!"

Zeta watches in amazement as everyone leaves. She runs back to the bathroom to find no one. She pokes her head out the window, and Ron is standing on her window sill.

Zeta pleads to Ron. "It was only the one time, Ron. And it was only because I felt sorry for him. It didn't mean nothing. I've done some dumb things."

Ron shrugs sheepishly. "Considering that I'm one of those dumb things, I can't give you too hard a time about that, Zeta."

Brick and the thugs pile into a car and tear off down the street the window faces.

A rocket takes off from Middleton Space Center.

"But I'm gonna have to stop these guys. They're out for blood. A woman's blood."

Ron jumps from the window, Rufus' pink face lapping at the wind.

_Zeta yells something, but I can't hear her over the roar of the rocket. Sounds like "sock". I'm just glad it isn't pants, because it's too early for them to fall down just yet._

Ron tumbles out of his fall and runs to his beat-up newly purchased but far from new scooter. The boy putts off after the car.


	8. The Big Fat Beating 3

Ron putted along the road, until he got on school grounds. That's when Mr. Barkin was outside the building.

_No, no, no. Trying to follow Brick and I wasn't paying attention. The last thing a guy with a C+ grade point average who's just a couple more detentions and missed projects away from permanent expulsion needs is after school attention from Mr. B. There's no way I can outrun him in this heap, and I don't have anything to cook him a bribe with. The only question is whether I try to talk my way out of it or activate the Mystical Monkey Power._

_Then Brick saves me a whole heap of trouble. He leads us straight to the gym. Mr. B knows he's not the law there, not at this time of the day. The ladies are._

_The ladies. If you love the Mad Dogs and you keep to the bleachers, they'll make your every dream come true. But if you step over the line, they'll deal you out a their own brand of street justice._

Ron follows Brick and his thugs into the gym. Where Brick comes through a set of doors leading straight onto the gym floor, Ron chooses a side entrance that keeps him behind the bleachers. Ron continues to sneak until Kim Possible grabs him by the arm.

"And what exactly are you doing here, Ron?", she asks.

Ron answers immediately and straight forward. "I saw these clowns coming here. I followed to make sure they didn't hurt any of the girls."

"Us helpless little girls?", Kim teased. "Don't worry. Bonnie was on to these losers the moment the door came open. Sit back. Enjoy the show."

_She guides my gaze up the stands. Viscious loudmouth Bonnie Rockweiller gazes down on the jocks._

The jocks come upon a cheerleader with bright fluffy hair and small but crisp eyes (Tara) going through stretches.

"Hey, how's it going?", Brick asks.

"Tough.", the girl replies. "It's been a pep rally today, so I'm just gonna stretch out and head home."

"We can give you a ride home."

"No thanks. Maybe you need to look elsewhere. Like Lowerton High. Remember, Lowerton not Upperton. Upperton's a preppie school."

"Naw, we're good right here. I been beat up every way I turn today. Come on. It'll be fun."

"Fun?", she asks. "Honey, you need a good night's sleep more than a date. Besides, I don't go out with groups."

Other cheerleaders have flipped the locks on the doors. The trap is set.

"How's the ticket taker?", Kim asks. "Those her boyfriends?"

_All type of trouble is going to go down just yards away and its still hard to take my eyes off her._

"One of them thinks he is.", Ron tells her.

Brick gets and edge to his voice. "Aw, come on, baby."

"They didn't really injure any body I know of, yet.", Ron tells Kim. "It got pretty bad over at Zeta's, but they didn't injure anybody."

Kim smiles. "Sit back. Bonnie's been just itching to get some practice."

Brick grabs Tara's arm and pulls her to her feet. "There's never gonna be a day where I get turned down by a cheerleader when I got the looks and the car to raise her popularity. You're coming with us."

Tara looks down at her arm, then his face in true fear of what comes next. "Ah, sugar. You just made the dumbest mistake of your life."

Bonnie's cellphone connects with Brick's knuckles, making him draw his hand back in pain. Two thugs are slapped senseless before the belittling remarks even affect their egos. Another's self-esteem and sunglasses aren't so lucky. The last thug goes down.

Brick turns to Bonnie. "You...you..."

Ron reveals himself. "Just settle down Brick. You're only making it worse on yourself."

Brick spins to him and somehow ends up twisting his legs to fall down. "Nobody laugh. Don't nobody laugh."

"I'm not laughing at you, Flagg.", Ron assures him.

Brick tries to pick himself up and launch himself at Bonnie. Bonnie slaps him to a wall.

"I can't see. I can't hear."

Kim has revealed herself. "Jeez, Bonnie. Just finish him quick."

Bonnie backhands Flagg. With the hands with the rings on it.

"Yeesh.", Ron comments.

_She doesn't so much as put her hand through his skull. Just makes a rag doll out of him._

_The next step is like clockwork. All of them are laid out. Any pick pocketing's gonna have to be done before they wake up. Brick's got a coupon book filled with deals I'm not too proud to hand off to Rufus. It's only when I turn his jacket back right side out that I learn._

_Brick Flagg. You rotten bastard._

_Zeta called out something that I couldn't make out, on account of the rocket. I thought she said "socks"._

Zeta screams out the window. "He's a jock!"

_Brick "Flagship" Flagg the paper called him. The new quarterback that was gonna win the season. A bloody hero jock._

Tara panics. "Oh no. The jocks! The gangs and drugs! It'll be like other schools."

Kim tries to keep command. "We have popularity. We can fight!"

_The shaky truce has held in the school since anyone can remember. The jocks get a hyped crowd at every game they play at, first pick at a homecoming date. The cheerleaders don't have to deal with a coach and get to run the gym as they please. Which means that the cheerleaders get to ostracize anyone who'd bring a weapon to school, or drugs or even pick on those who can't fight back. And when a jock gets out of line, they send him packing. But they send him back awake, not beat up by a girl._

_Oh my God, Flagg. What have you done?_


	9. The Big Fat Beating 4

"Oh, my God.", Tara starts. "The jocks. The gangs! It's all over." 

Kim sneers visciously. "We have popularity. We can fight. The jocks and the gangs and anyone else who tries to move in on us."

Ron shakes his head. "It doesn't have to get to that. We can hide them until they wake up."

"Hide them?!", Kim screams, pointing at him. "Barkin's gonna check the bleachers! He's gonna check the cafeteria!"

"Get that finger out of my face.", Ron replies. "I'll take them to the Home Ec room. He never checks Home Ec."

"It's over Ron! And we have you to thank for this unholy mess.", Kim continues.

_Bonnie moves to my back. A single thought from KP and I'm as good as dead._

"It's not over. I can get them to Home Ec. Now get that finger out of my face.", demands.

Ron pushes her hand out of his face.

KP glares, appalled. "Bastard!"

The cheerleaders circle around him, prepared to do their worst. Then

_Then KP crushes her body into mine. Hugging me so hard it hurts. Reminding me of all the years, more than a decade, we've been best friends. My warrior woman._

"I'll be yours, KP.", Ron insists.

"Always...and never.", Kim breathes at him.

Ron leans away from her and instructs the others. "Get me a Pickle Day parade float. With a big tarp."


	10. The Big Fat Beating 5

"Just look at that dolly.", Ron comments. "They'll never fit." 

_They bring me a hallway janitor's cart and a tarp no bigger than a table cloth. No way to pack 'em all in. But I got to._

_We start piling up the jocks on the cart but the tarp won't fit over all of 'em. No choice but to put my Mad Dog mascot uniform over Brick; head, paws and all._

Kim regards the foam leaking out of the mask. "Yeesh."

Then she turns to the cheerleaders. "Alright! Nobody talks to anyone about this. Nobody. Not parents, not your best friend, no one you hear me."

"Alright, Kim.", Marcella submits.

Ron takes the cart out into the hallway.

Standing outside, Tara is on her cell phone.

"Hey, Kim said 'no calls'.", Crystal reminded her.

"Come on. It's just my mom. I had to tell her something about why I'm coming home late.", Tara complains.

Crystal grimaces, then shrugs. "Alright, just don't say anything, okay?"

"Oh. Yeah.", Tara agrees. "Don't say nothin' to Kim, please. I don't want her to be mad."

Crystal nods, then walks away.


	11. The Big Fat Beating 6

Ron pushes the cart down the hallway. Any time he is not glancing around for Barkin, he stares right into the face of the Middleton Mad Dog.

_Dizzy dames. What were they thinking, sticking me with a shaky rig like this? We could barely keep them all on it, we stacked them so high. The only place for Brick was in my mascot uniform. Out where anyone who cares to look can see him._

_Go ahead, take some of his gum. It will help._

Ron takes a stick and starts chewing, all while pushing the dolly.

"It's got you chewing again, Ron-Man.", the mask slobbers at him.

_You shut the hell up, Brick. You're unconscious. I'm just imagining this. So you just shut the hell up._

The Mad Dog's spittle leaked ominously. "Tells you somthin' about your state of mind, don't it? Got you hearing things..."

Some of the spray Ron flung at the crowd on game day hit Ron in the face after the cart hit a bad tile.

"Got you...feeling things.", the mascot said as Ron wiped it away. "Your nerve's shot! It's got you chewing, despite saving your palette for cooking and Bueno Nacho. You know it's the truththththsss..."

"Nobody ever really quits. A chewer's a chewer when the chips are down. And your chips are down."

_I'm fine. You shut the hell up._

The inanimate mask smiled at him. "Will you look at that! Those cheerleaderspthss let you down."

Ron noticed one of the wheels on the dolly bent at a bad angle, ready to give at any moment.

"What are you gonna do when it snaps? Ask the librarian to borrow hers? Heh heh heh... You goofy sidekick, you. You ain't even gonna make it to Home Ec."

Ron objects vocally. "You shut the hell up. I'll make it."

"Not unless you keep your eyes on the hallway, sugar pie.", the Mad Dog warns.

Ron scrapes a row of lockers with the dolly, jostling the mass of bodies on it.

"Ah, this is great.", the animal tells him as his dead weight slides onto Ron, coating him with more false saliva. "Just like talking smack in the ring on GWA."

"Shut up!", Ron spits back. The boy shoves him back onto the cart.

Then the janitor, an immigrant from Canada, turns a corner in the hall.

"Boy, you're screwed.", says the Mad Dog. The unconscious mascot sits up and pulls out another stick of gum. It chews it voraciously without losing any of the foam leaking from its mask.

"It's over. You're flushed."

_This time I can't bring myself to tell him to be quiet. Sure, he's a jerk. Sure, he's knocked out. Sure, I'm just imagining that he's talking to me. None of that stops the thing from being absolutely right. I don't have a chance at dragging the cart faster than his mop bucket._

"Wait a minute, eh?", the janitor tells him.

_The only question left is whether or not he's gonna be the first guy not wearing a black gi that learns what Mystical Monkey Power can do. Tough call. He could be some super spy, the type of guy me and Kim fight all the time. Then again, he could just be another minimum wage brother just trying to earn an honest living. The glow creeps into my eyes all on its own. I don't know what to do._

"You'd better stop.", the Mad Dog advises. "You're making him angry."

Ron smirks. "Whatever you say."

The janitor walks up to the stopped cart. The man flips the Brick Flagg filled mascot over on the cart. "That'll keep him from putting too much strain on that bad wheel."

"I see that there's much I have left to teach you, eh?"

The man walks away with his mop bucket.

_What next?_


	12. The Big Fat Beating 7

"No more questions, Crystal.", Kim scolded into the Kimmunicator. "What did I say? Clear the gym. We're in lock down. No one's learning any routines. Not today."

Then the largest student in the entire school, known throughout detention only by the moniker "Big Mike", grabbed the girl from behind.

"Don't struggle.", he cautioned as he tried to outsize sixteen forms of Kung-Fu. "You will only hurt yourself.

"Your cause is lost. We know everything. Soon, the slumbering Brick Flagg will awaken, knowing he was beat up by a girl. The truce between Mr. Barkin and your cheer leaders will be shattered. There will be suspensions. There will be expulsions. My employer will seize what remains of the gym. You will all be slaves. Nothing can stop this."

"But... It is within your power to save many student records, by **facilitating** the process of transition. By negotiating the terms, of the surrender of the gym."

Kim folded her thumb in and without a widened hand, Big Mike's grip slipped. She cursed, "You son of a/"

He merely applied his weight to her back and Kim was shoved to the floor.

"I know that voice.", the cheer leader declared.

"I have suffered your kind before.", he continued. "The dregs of Mid City. I serve a new master now. And soon you, and all your wretched kind, will serve him as well.

"Now get dressed. And shed a tear for Ronald Stoppable, if you must. For by now, he is assuredly beaten."

"You don't know him.", Kim objected. "You don't know my man.

"My man will find a way. He always finds a way."


	13. The Big Fat Beating 8

_The wheel breaks three rooms down from Home Ec. I nearly carry the cart the rest of the way. _

_A few minutes more work and it'll all be over. Brick and his friends would wake up in Home Ec. They'd have the opportunity to just shut up about what happened, with their tough guy reps intact. I'll scooter back home and no one would be the wis/_

A two by four whizzes over the cart. Instantly, Ron falls... to stay.


	14. The Big Fat Beating 9

"I don't get how these kids are always whining about how they got it so bad.", the one with the plank of wood stated. "It's a fine grand school. Guiding light of the town it is. No tuition. Land of opportunity.

"Where else would one swing get us the student group funding for this?"

A girl started speaking. "Sure beats putting on show after show and not having anything to show for it."

She walked over to the foaming latex mask of the Mad Dog. "Yeesh.

"You find something?"

"Yeah.", the one with the two by four said. "My board's covered in slobber. Which mean I grazed the mask...and didn't hit him!"

Ron swung around to his feet, grabbing the guy by his belt and hurling him down the hall. Another guy tried to jump his back, but he carried his momentum into a back kick and the second flew away.

The girl tried to curse over the fight. Ron kicked Brick's body into her, pinning her with many more times her body weight.

_They weren't teachers, these four. They were drama club kids. That's supposed to mean there into putting on plays. In Mid City, that means they're just constantly trying to sew the drama in school. And if they were hired by who I think they were hired by, the bad times haven't even started yet._

When Ron advanced on the fourth, the other three grabbed him. They wrestled him over to a window of the class and promptly threw him through it.

_And everything seemed to be going so well._


	15. The Big Fat Beating 10

Ron listened as hard as his fingers held onto the window sill.

"Remember, you don't have to deliver every single jock."

"Got a point there. Let me just get the big ticket item."

"Should I take a nap while I'll be doin' all this waitin'."

"Be still? I've nearly got him on me."

Ron heard the slobbers drip from the deformed canine mask.

"Have you ever seen somethin' so pretty in your whole life?"

"We'll be back for you. And if anyone should happen byes, use yer imagination, yeah?"

_Silence now. No traction to hold. Only the burning numbness that sinks up into my fingers. _

_Let it end. Let yourself drop. They were counting on you and you blew it. _

_Skinny steely fingers at my wrist. Bonnie. You're an angel. You're a saint. You're Mother Teresa. You're the Fearless Ferret. You're God._

_And if you had shown up ten minutes earlier, we still would have an unconscious Brick!_

Bonnie holds out the Kimmunicator. On screen, Wade blurts out. "Ron, they've got Kim."

Ron looks past the screen to Bonnie. "It's a cinch. You got a spy in the gym_. _A stoolie that sold you out to the detention crowd_. _We gotta find out who it is and rescue KP."

"But first we've got to get our hands on Brick before he wakes up and he tears this whole situation apart with his bare hands."

"Bonnie: I hope you left one of 'em with enough self esteem to not just cry."

Bonnie points.

Ron walks up to the guy. _I tell him I want to talk. Rufus shows him that I'm not fooling around. We talk. _


	16. The Big Fat Beating 11

Bonnie and Ron now race and unloaded cart in the direction they recently found out.

_Stay smart. Stay cool. Never be normal. It's time to prove to your best friend that you're worth a damn. Sometimes that means taking a beating. Sometimes it means beating a whole lotta of people._

"According to the radioactive decay signature of the Mad Dog foam, they should be just around the corner.", Wade says over the Kimmunicator. "What do we do?"

"We stop them, Wade.", Ron tells him with his serious face.

At the intersection of the halls, the cart and everyone involved collides.

_Brick is so close I could kiss him, right then and there._

Ron goes sailing past. The Kimmunicator, is crushed and kicked to many times to count on its way to the floor and shatters on impact. One of the drama club starts yelling, "Get the jock. Get the jock!"

One of the guys tries to cover another as he cushions Brick. Bonnie leaps with the skills of a cheerleader and slams into his chest, knocking him breathless, then blaming him for his gaze pointed up the same skirt she does high kicks in front of crowd wearing.

"Suck on this, you stupid slag!", the guy holding Brick yells. He then swings Brick into her, batting the cheer leader away.

He then tries to jump down the stairs carrying a football star.

_I don't know whether Bonnie's alive or dead. But I'm on my feet and both me and Rufus want to get some beatings in._

Ron runs to the stairs. "Want the jock now, sweetheart? So come down and get him!"

Ron vaults the rail and lets gravity bring him to the floor below.

"Brave lad.", the guy tells Ron. "I could've swung this heap of meat at you just now. But that's not gonna exactly help him wake up now is it? You got the drop on me, love. I'm as helpless as a baby."

He then kicks Ron away from the stairs.

"I'm gonna come clean with ya, sweat heart. It was a straight lie about not slapping this guy around.

"But I'm not too found of punchin'. It's my preference to just kick things in. Once you see a guy go down before he's even confused about it. No little finger formation's gonna compare to steel toe to the jaw. And here's me, with these brand knew jumpers...and a good stretch already in.

"But it's me crowbar that I'll be doin' you in with.

"You beat up me mates. Someone shoulda told ya, 'Never give the drama club an excuse for more drama'."

Bonnie grabs him by the neck from behind.

_Deadly little Bonnie. You won't remember a thing unless she wants you to. She digs her nails in. He'll remember._

_I tell Bonnie what we're gonna do and how we're gonna do it. I use what I can piece together of the Kimmunicator to make the most important call of my life. First, we gotta rescue KP. Then comes the beating. The Big Fat Beating.  
_


	17. The Big Fat Beating 12

Bonnie and Ron now race and unloaded cart in the direction they recently found out.

_Stay smart. Stay cool. Never be normal. It's time to prove to your best friend that you're worth a damn. Sometimes that means taking a beating. Sometimes it means beating a whole lotta of people._

"According to the radioactive decay signature of the Mad Dog foam, they should be just around the corner.", Wade says over the Kimmunicator. "What do we do?"

"We stop them, Wade.", Ron tells him with his serious face.

At the intersection of the halls, the cart and everyone involved collides.

_Brick is so close I could kiss him, right then and there._

Ron goes sailing past. The Kimmunicator, is crushed and kicked to many times to count on its way to the floor and shatters on impact. One of the drama club starts yelling, "Get the jock. Get the jock!"

One of the guys tries to cover another as he cushions Brick. Bonnie leaps with the skills of a cheerleader and slams into his chest, knocking him breathless, then blaming him for his gaze pointed up the same skirt she does high kicks in front of crowd wearing.

"Suck on this, you stupid slag!", the guy holding Brick yells. He then swings Brick into her, batting the cheer leader away.

He then tries to jump down the stairs carrying a football star.

_I don't know whether Bonnie's alive or dead. But I'm on my feet and both me and Rufus want to get some beatings in._

Ron runs to the stairs. "Want the jock now, sweetheart? So come down and get him!"

Ron vaults the rail and lets gravity bring him to the floor below.

"Brave lad.", the guy tells Ron. "I could've swung this heap of meat at you just now. But that's not gonna exactly help him wake up now is it? You got the drop on me, love. I'm as helpless as a baby."

He then kicks Ron away from the stairs.

"I'm gonna come clean with ya, sweat heart. It was a straight lie about not slapping this guy around.

"But I'm not too found of punchin'. It's my preference to just kick things in. Once you see a guy go down before he's even confused about it, no little finger formation's gonna compare to steel toe to the jaw. And here's me, with these brand new jumpers...and a good stretch already in.

"But it's me crowbar that I'll be doin' you in with.

"You beat up me mates. Someone shoulda told ya, 'Never give the drama club an excuse for more drama'."

Bonnie grabs him by the neck from behind.

_Deadly little Bonnie. You won't remember a thing unless she wants you to. She digs her nails in. He'll remember._

Ron and Bonnie bring the unconscious Brick back to the cart with the rest of the jocks._  
_

_I tell Bonnie what we're gonna do and how we're gonna do it. I use what I can piece together of the Kimmunicator to make the most important call of my life. First, we gotta rescue KP. Then comes the beating. The Big Fat Beating.  
_


End file.
